United States v. Hipolito Martinez-Martinez


Case: 18-12602 Date Filed: 06/28/2019 Page: 1 of 10 [DO NOT PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________ No. 18-12602 Non-Argument Calendar ________________________ D.C. Docket No. 4:17-cr-00217-WTM-GRS-1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, versus HIPOLITO MARTINEZ-MARTINEZ, Defendant-Appellant. ________________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia ________________________ (June 28, 2019) Before TJOFLAT, JORDAN, and BRANCH, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: Case: 18-12602 Date Filed: 06/28/2019 Page: 2 of 10 Hipolito Martinez-Martinez challenges the search warrant that led to his arrest and conviction for possession of a firearm by an alien illegally in the United States, 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(5)(A).1 He argues that there was no probable cause to search his home, that the warrant was insufficiently particularized, and that the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule does not apply. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the denial of his motion to suppress the firearm evidence seized under the warrant, and we affirm his conviction. The events that led to the search of Martinez’s home were as follows. Police in Garden City, Georgia, were investigating the August 19, 2017, murder of Eliud Montoya, a naturalized U.S. citizen who had been shot execution-style with a small-caliber bullet, possibly .22-caliber. One suspect was Pablo Rangel, Montoya’s supervisor at work whom Montoya had recently reported for running an illegal alien employment scheme and skimming his employees’ pay. In addition, Rangel’s nephew and Montoya’s co-worker Refugio Ramirez had been arrested in 2014 for illegally concealing a .22-caliber pistol. Rangel lived at 275 Milton Rahn Road in rural Rincon, Georgia, and Ramirez lived in a trailer on Rangel’s property. Detective Roberto Rodriguez applied for a search warrant. In his affidavit, he declared that “fruits of the crime d[o] exist inside the residence located at 275 1 “It shall be unlawful for any person . . . who, being an alien . . . is illegally or unlawfully in the United States . . . to possess in or affecting commerce, any firearm or ammunition . . . .” 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(5)(A). 2 Case: 18-12602 Date Filed: 06/28/2019 Page: 3 of 10 Milton Rahn Road.” The warrant was approved by the local magistrate, authorizing a search of: 275 Milton Rahn Road, Rincon Georgia, 31326. The residence and property can be reached by traveling on Rahn Station Road from Highway 21 for 2 miles making a left onto Milton Rahn Road and traveling 1.2 miles and the residence (tan in color) will be located on the left following by the mobile home (gray in color). See Exhibit A and B [Satellite photographs of the land] Property is owned by Pablo Rangel. Property is listed with having 26.65 acres. Land has multiple dwellings that can not be accessed without driving on a private drive that dead ends on this land. Residence has a newer structure identified as a modular home, as well as multiple trailers as follows. Gray in color mobile home with white trim located at the ...

Original document
Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals